


Curiosity Killed the Cat

by therealassistant



Series: DRV3 Remnants of Despair au [5]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: AUGH, Gen, Gore, I think?, No Anime Brainwashing We Despair Like Real Men, Shuichi, but it's not that bad, ill change the rating later if I change my mind, remnants of despair au, this one was actually hard to write, why are you so hard to Write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-05 12:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11013873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therealassistant/pseuds/therealassistant
Summary: Sometimes, the truth should remain unseen and unsaid.





	Curiosity Killed the Cat

**Author's Note:**

> akjhajhfbabf heck
> 
> Heck
> 
> Heck
> 
> Heck
> 
> So yeah here's the newest story for the remnants of despair au, I hope you all enjoy it.
> 
> I don't own Danganronpa in any way, shape, or form (besides the few games I own) so please don't sue me.

Not for the first time since he had gotten into Hopes Peak Academy, Shuichi Saihara wonders about how he even ended up in this school.

He only solved one murder, just one, before anyone else could, and that just made him an Ultimate? The police force wasn't that incompetent, he knew this. After all, his uncle was part of it. Hell, he didn't even want to be a detective.

For as long as he could remember, his uncle was more like a father to him than his actual father ever was. He couldn't blame him, though, or his mother either, they were both pretty famous actors, and had little to no time for their untalented son. Eventually, his parents had him move into his uncle's house one day, with Shuichi's uncle welcoming the young boy with open arms.

At first, Shuichi had just helped his uncle keep his office tidy, before curiosity got the better of him, occasionally listening in on the cases people brought to his uncle. Most of them were just infidelity cases, which, once he was old enough, he sometimes helped his uncle with. Still, he had no intention of becoming a detective. Seeing what the job had done to his uncle had scared him out of the job. Being a detective almost seemed... Draining, as if his uncle was getting the life sucked out of him with each case.

He didn't want to end up like that, not at all.

He just wanted to take some weight off his uncle's back. There was also the rush that came with successfully solving a case, even if their client didn't seem happy at all with what the conclusion was in the end.

Yet, Shuichi was never there for that part, he only saw the client angrily storming out of his uncle's office with backs towards him as he tried to sweep the hallway with the broken, old broom his uncle had given him.

That all changed once his uncle had been assigned to a murder case.

The older man seemed to distance himself from Shuichi once he had gotten the case, yet the raven haired boy knew that just meant that his uncle was busy and didn't have time to talk to him. Shuichi knew that once the case was over, his uncle would be back to normal again, or at least what was considered normal. 

Still, he was pretty curious about the murder case. It was the first murder case his uncle had ever been on, after all, and he was assigned to do it by the local police department no less. So, one night, once he had finished all of his homework, and his uncle had left the office, telling him that he could lock up for the night, Shuichi had quickly walked over to his uncle's desk.

He sat down on the large, comfortable desk chair behind his uncle's desk, swinging back and forth a few times, before moving the chair forward a bit so he could see the papers scattered across the desk. 

It didn't take him that long to figure out the reason as to why his uncle was the detective working on this case, since the victim was once a client for his uncle. It also didn't take him long to figure out the murder weapon, the motive, and, eventually, the murderer. He didn't even realize he was writing on the papers until it was too late, and even after he realized it, he didn't stop writing on the papers. It was like his body had been taken over by some unknown force, and it couldn't be stopped until the case was solved.

He doesn't notice when nighttime comes, or when the sun rises and pierces through the pitch black sky, signaling dawn, he doesn't even realize that his uncle had entered the office until the older man had yelled at him.

"Shuichi, what are you doing?!" The raven haired boy had jumped, dropping the pencil in his hand as he wordlessly stared up at his uncle. For the first time, the older man seemed enraged, quickly moving over towards Shuichi, nearly slapping the paper out of Shuichi's hand before seeing what his nephew had written. 

His uncle had gathered the papers in his hands, his eyes dancing across the white sheets for a few minutes, and just when Shuichi was starting to apologize, his uncle had smiled. "Shuichi... Did... Did you do this..?"

Shuichi was rendered speechless once again, opening and shutting his mouth a few times, before simply nodding his head. The older man had laughed, using one hand to pat his nephew's back as he finally looked back down at Shuichi. "You know, for someone who doesn't want to be a detective, you seem to really have a knack for it."

Shuichi had said nothing in reply once again, and didn't say anything for the rest of the day until the murderer was arrested.

His uncle had brought him along for the arrest, since Shuichi had been the one to solve the case. The raven haired boy watched as the suspect was almost tackled to the ground after he had tried to run away from the officers, Shuichi didn't even say or do anything once he had overheard that the murderer had only killed the victim to avenge his family. He barely twitched once he had heard that the reason as to why the murderer had killed that man was because he had made the murderer's family commit suicide. 

No, Shuichi only felt sick, forcing himself to remain calm in front of everyone else so he wouldn't seem like a child. He was just now realizing that he had taken the victim's side, he had helped a truly awful man find his killer. It didn't even cross his mind that his uncle had once worked for the victim, too distraught to even remember.

The only thing that Shuichi could secretly hope for at the time was that the victim had ended up in hell.

###### 

"Oy! What the hell are you doing out here?!"

Shuichi nearly dropped the flashlight in his hands at the loud, brash voice, quickly turning around to see who had spoken. The person behind him yelled in both pain and irritation as they held their hands up in front of their face to block off the light. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! Turn that damn thing off!"

"S-Sorry Iruma..!" Shuichi nearly dropped the flashlight as he attempted to turn it off, managing to do it in just a few seconds, covering the outside world in a pitch black landscape once again. 

Iruma, clad in her usual steampunk like outfit, groaned a bit as she rubbed her eyes in some attempt to get rid of the pain. "You better be fucking sorry..! I don't need my eyesight to kick your ass!" Once the pain in Iruma's eyes seemed to have lessened, she finally removed her hands from them, blinking a few times quickly, before finally glaring down at Shuichi. "Also, you didn't answer my fucking question. Last time I checked, this is the outside of the girl dorms! What the fuck are you doing here?"

Shuichi opened and shut his mouth a few times as he tried to decide whether or not he should lie to Iruma, or tell her the truth. Would she believe him if he told her that he was investigating Junko Enoshima since she was blackmailing, who he considered, a friend, or just laugh and then chase him away? In the end, he just couldn't decide on what to say, looking down at the ground, hoping that his hat would hide his face from sight as he mumbled, giving a small shrug.

"... Oh... Ooooohh..." Unbeknownst to Shuichi, the blond began to smirk, her hands at her hips as realization dawned on her. "I see what's going on here..."

Shuichi glanced up at Iruma in both confusion and shock, rendered speechless for a few moments before finally speaking up. "... You do?"

The ultimate inventor nodded her head a bit, chuckling maniacally to herself for awhile before speaking up. "You just want in on some... Action, right?"

"... Excuse me?"

"Aw, don't look so surprised! I understand!" Before Shuichi could protest, Iruma was already quickly walking away, waving behind her as she nearly yelled at the detective. "I'll leave ya to it! See you tomorrow, Saihara!"

"..." Shuichi only gave an exhausted sigh, before turning around, turning on his flashlight once again, hoping that no one had picked up on the conversation he just had.

It didn't take him that long to find the front entrance to the building, although had to turn off his flashlight sometimes, and it, surprisingly, didn't take him that long to sneak through the building to Junko's room. He thought to himself as he reached for the doorknob, almost hesitantly, thinking that it was strange that he had gotten there so easily. Shouldn't there be some guards posted around the dorms just in case someone had any "ideas"-?

He nearly fell flat on his face as the door swung open easily, for some bizarre reason remaining unlocked. He caught himself at the last second, using the door frame to balance himself as he stumbled into the room. Once he was standing up straight again, he sighed in relief, looking up and glancing around the room. Although, he could barely see anything in the darkness, besides a bright light that seemed to come from a laptop screen.

The light nearly burned the would be detective's eyes, having to blink fast to at least make the pain lessen, turning off the flashlight in his hand as he walked to the laptop. A quick glance at the laptop's background, a picture of a girl with strawberry blond hair nearly strangling another girl in a headlock, which he assumed was her sister based off what he found out about Junko Enoshima so far, nearly confirmed that it belonged to the person blackmailing his friend. Yet the girl in a headlock only gave an uncomfortable looking frown as she glanced up at her sister in what seemed to be... Adoration? It was hard to tell. Then again, he was never good at reading someone's emotions.

He shivered, quickly moving the cursor on screen so he could bring up the documents on it, wanting to get out of the room as soon as he could. Even if he couldn't see anything in the room, and he was pretty sure that no one else besides him was inside said room, a feeling of unease overtook him. He sighed a bit as he quickly scanned through the documents on the laptop screen, leaning his head on one of his hands as his eyes now lazily scanned the screen. 

He soon began to question why he was even there. He wasn't a detective, well, at least not officially, and even if he was one, he wouldn't even be a decent one. Why did he even agree to being enrolled into Hopes Peak? He wanted to impress his uncle, sure, yet-

He froze up as the words "Izuru Kamukura Project" crossed the screen.

That bored, almost exhausted look wiped off his face once he saw the title of, what he noticed, a very large document. 

He recognized that name, it's not like he could simply forget who the founder of Hopes Peak Academy was. Yet why was his name on a document in Junko's laptop? There were no school assignments he could recall where they were doing something about the academy's founding...

After a few minutes of hesitance, he opens the document, and begins reading it.

As time goes on, his eyes get wider and wider, and he suddenly feels the sudden urge to vomit.

Stealing memories from talented students? Lobotomy that suppresses someone's own personality? And the very fact that Hopes Peak was the mastermind behind it all along?

It was... Appalling to say the least.

He quickly forced himself to his feet, raising his hands to his mouth in an attempt to prevent himself from puking.

He had to tell someone about this. He would have to find more blackmail on Junko some other time, for now, he just had to go tell someone about this before Hopes Peak followed through with this insane plan.

Unbeknownst to him, though, the shadows around him seemed to move, getting closer and closer to him, forming a human like figure.

It didn't take long for it to get close to him, although he was panicking too much about what he saw on the laptop to notice. 

Once whatever was in the darkness was close enough, a hand shot out of the darkness, grabbing Shuichi's arm, nearly snapping it to keep him still as another hand shot out of the darkness, slamming two fingers into his neck, knocking him out before he could even make a sound.

###### 

When Shuichi wakes up again, he's laying down on the ground, still inside the dark room, yet his sleeve is stained in blood and he can't breath without feeling a stinging pain burning his throat.

He gasps in pain as he raises both hands to his neck, not even noticing how most of the pain he's feeling is from his broken arm until he stops moving it, almost causing him to scream in pain, or at least try to, only able to give a groan due to his neck, before a sudden laugh echoes across the pitch black room. The instant it reaches his ears, he froze up in fear, instantly recognizing it.

Oh no

Oh no no no

This couldn't be happening.

"Heeeyyyy! I didn't expect you to get here so soon, Shuichi!"

This could not be happening.

He could only see a pink blob bobbing up and down in the darkness, yet even he could tell who the owner of the voice was. He didn't move or say a single word, all he could do was stare into the darkness as the she-demon continued to speak. "Mukuro, you idiot! I thought I told you to keep watch over this place!" What sounded like a light slap, followed by a small grunt, resounded across the room, before the voice continued. "And look what happened! We got Emo Boy here, and we aren't even prepared..!"

... Emo Boy? Were they referring to him?

After a few minutes of tense silence, Shuichi finally dared to speak up, swallowing what seemed to be nothing but air before he spoke up. "... Wh... What exactly are you planning..?"

"... Hmph." The sound of heels, somehow, clicking quietly into the carpeted floor echoed across the small dorm room, before Shuichi finally saw her face.

At first, it was as if he was Alice, stranded in Wonderland and looking up at the sky, expecting to see the moon when all he could see was the Cheshire Cat's beaming smile. Yet there wasn't any happiness or sense of adventure in Junko Enoshima's smile, but a menacing and conflicting sense of despair and mirth.

"Weeeelll... I guess we could tell you... It's not like we have anything to hide."

Now Shuichi was shocked, were they really going to tell him why they were blackmailing Kaito? No, it couldn't be that simple, there had to be some sort of catch or gimmick to all this madness.

Before he could even speak, though, a bright flash of light nearly blinds him, only causing him to flinch a bit in pain as he screwed his eyes shut. It takes him only a few seconds to open them again, and once he does, he shivers at what he sees.

In front of him is Junko Enoshima, outlined by the TV screen behind her, an almost concerning, yet somehow also condescending, look on her face as she bent forward a bit, face to face with the so called Ultimate Detective. "Now, I know what you're thinking." She clapped her hands together as she stood back up straight, an almost far away look in her eyes as she spoke. "Oh, great and wonderful Junko, what could you possibly show to such an unworthy subject like me?" She glanced down at Shuichi, eyebrow raised as she lowered her arms. "I'm right, right? Totally right. No way in hell that I'm not right, right?"

Shuichi was nearly speechless at this point, his broken arm going numb as he simply stared at Junko, opening and closing his mouth a few times in an attempt to speak, before just shutting his mouth, quickly nodding his head, causing the fashionista to laugh as she threw her hands in the air. "Kyaaaaa! I knew it! Now, Mukuro!" She extended her hand out towards the darkness, a devilish smirk appearing on her face as she gestured towards the TV. "Hand me the remote... It's show time."

###### 

At first, Shuichi isn't surprised by what he sees on the screen, that, or he's not concerned about it. Yes, whatever Junko was showing him was concerning, but it wasn't real, right? Government and police officials weren't burning up documents or getting rid of evidence just... Just to get whatever ending seemed best for them.

It couldn't be true.

It just had to be fake.

Well, that's what he thought, until his uncle came up on screen. 

He could only watch as his uncle burned document after document. Remaining completely silent as his uncle destroyed pieces of evidence left and right, and, once he meets the client, either get a large sum of money, or watch someone storm out of the room in a fit of rage, only to be replaced by someone minutes later who gave his uncle an even larger sum of money.

Among those people, Shuichi recognized the victim of the case he had solved, who had congratulated his uncle on covering up that little "mishap".

At first, he couldn't believe what was on the screen. Yet as time went on, and he recognized more and more people tampering or destroying evidence, the less fake this all seemed, and the more he thought about that one case he had solved not too long ago. He remembered the anguish he felt, the suffering he had caused not only to himself, but to the murderer as well for foiling his plans. After all, he would probably want to kill the guy that caused his family to commit suicide. Well, before all of this, he would have wanted to get revenge. Now, not so much.

As more time went on, his shock, sadness, and a raw, almost pure feeling of betrayal slowly left him, being replaced by something more dangerous and unsettling.

Despair

And he welcomed this feeling with open arms, allowing it to overtake him and cloud his judgement.

After all, if both lies and the truth were equally awful and ended in nothing but despair, then what was the point in finding the truth, or telling lies?

For the first time in what seemed to be forever, Shuichi Saihara laughs, ignoring the pain in his arm as his body shook from the broken, hysterical laughter. He wasn't even bothered when Junko Enoshima joined in, filling the dark dorm room with hysterical chuckles and despair filled Cheshire Cat smiles.

###### 

He can't help himself from smiling as he places his hands on the podium in front of him, panting as he tries to catch his breath.

He's almost disgusted with himself for smiling at a time like this. But you know what? Fuck it, he deserved this. He had wanted this ever since that god damn bear trapped them all inside this abandoned factory. It didn't matter that he had to kill his wife and tricked everyone else into believing he wasn't the one who killed her. He was a famous actor, and he probably deserved this freedom the most out of all of them.

Although, he was almost second guessing his own actions, now that he was hearing the dying screams of his "coworkers", as well as remembering the pure look of betrayal in his lover's eyes as he...

He clenched the podium tighter as he gritted his teeth, now glaring at the podium. No, now was not the time for this, now was not the time to be regretting his actions, he had to-

"Ah, I kind of wish you weren't such a good actor, Hiroshi Saihara..." The man tensed up completely, before quickly looking over his shoulder, his eyes going wide once he spots the man behind him. At this point, all of the other "coworkers" should be dead by now, so why wasn't..? "Then again, if you weren't such a good actor this all would have played out... Differently, I suppose."

Hiroshi's eyes narrowed as he turns around and stares at the man in front of him. He couldn't be that old, judging by his voice, but then again, he couldn't tell that well since a majority of the other man's face was covered by a scarf and a pair of sunglasses. The man's long black hair fell just below his chin, almost giving him a bum like appearance, even if he was wearing a sharp suit.

It didn't take Hiroshi that long to figure out what this other man's role was, considering he wasn't dead yet. "You..." Hiroshi, finally, let go of the podium, taking a step away from it as he glared down at the smaller man. "You're the mastermind in all of this..?"

Instead of simply nodding his head, the younger man laughed, clapping his hands as he boasted. "Bravo, Hiroshi, bravo! That must have required a lot of thinking-"

Before the mastermind could finish his insult, the older man sprinted towards him, rough, firm hands grasping the shorter man's collar before Hiroshi lifted him into the air. "You bastard!" Spit fell onto the mastermind's face as Hiroshi shook him in his hands, causing the mastermind's scarf to loosen, and, eventually, fall off his face. "You made me kill my fucking wife..!" 

Slowly, Hiroshi's voice trailed off, staring down at the man in his hands. Now that the scarf was off the mastermind's face, what showed was... Familiar. Eerily familiar.

Without any protest, the mastermind allowed Hiroshi to rip the sunglasses off his face, revealing the bright red eyes underneath.

Even if the mastermind's eye color wasn't its usual dull gray, he knew who this person was instantly. It was as if he was looking at a younger version of himself.

The mastermind smiled as realization dawned on the actor's face, horror taking over his face all too quickly as he dropped the mastermind, taking a step away from him in fear. "... Sh... Shuichi..?"

The mastermind stomped on the discarded sunglasses as he smirked, ruby red eyes glaring maliciously at who was once his father as he nodded. "I didn't expect you to recognize me, Hiroshi, considering that you didn't even raise me... But that'll just make this so much better."

Hiroshi opened his mouth to respond, but quickly shut it. What could he say? Shuichi was right on how he wasn't there to raise him, but he didn't think it was that much of a problem. His brother was watching over him after all... Did his brother say something that made Shuichi this upset? Or, hell, did his brother put Shuichi up to this? Slowly, Hiroshi started to laugh uneasily. "This is all some sort of prank, right..?" He started to look around for his brother, expecting him to walk into the room, arms spread wide for a hug with a smile on his face. "Minoru, come on, this isn't that funny anymore..."

His son's confused look just made Hiroshi's laughter more hysterical, his actions more feverish. Yet he still understood what his son said next. "My uncle didn't have anything to do with this."

Hiroshi froze up completely, his mad smile frozen as his laughter stopped, staring down at his son as Shuichi continued to speak. "Besides, he's not... What's the right word for it? Cruel? Smart? Creative? Yes, that's it. He's not creative enough to think of something this complicated. Besides..." That sadistic smile reappeared on his son's face as he clenched his fists, which Hiroshi saw were red and bruised, almost as if they were healing. "He can't even think about anything right now. He's dead, after all."

That hit the actor like a slap in the face, recoiling a bit as he took another step away from who was once his son.

It didn't take a genius to realize what the mastermind was implying, and even if Minoru and him weren't on good terms, he was still his brother, and he had cared about him in his own little ways. After all, he did trust his brother enough to watch over Shuichi back then.

Yet it seemed that Minoru didn't do a really good job in taking care of his son if this was how he turned out.

"Now, enough talk." Shuichi clapped his hands together as he looked away from Hiroshi, glancing up towards the robotic bear on the throne as he rambled on. "Let's just get on with the punishment. Oh, what should I do? Should I beat him? Burn him? Cut him into pieces? I'm getting so excited just thinking about it..."

"Wh... What are you..?" Finally, it seemed that Hiroshi had caught his breath, gasping for air as he protested. "What the hell are you talking about..?! You said that whoever "won" would get out of here..!"

Once again, a confused look appeared on Shuichi's face as he turned back around to face his father. "... No, I said that the first person to get away with murder would get a reward. I never said what it was, you all just assumed it would be escaping this place." Suddenly, his son's face lit up, as if the greatest idea he's ever had just crossed his mind. "... I have the perfect punishment." Slowly, he rolled up the sleeves of his suit, almost barring his teeth in a smile as he looked back towards the Monokuma. "My fists are going to hurt like hell after this, but it's only fitting that you die the same way my uncle did."

Hiroshi's eyes widened a bit, taking a step back from Shuichi, yet foolishly not running away. "W-Wait, let's try to talk this out-"

The actor didn't know that no matter what, Shuichi would not be talked out of his despair with simple diplomacy.

With a speed he wasn't even aware his son had, Shuichi closed the distance between him and his father, before tackling the older man to the ground.

Much to his surprise, the first hit to his face isn't the one that hurts the most, no, it's the ones after it. Shuichi wasn't strong enough to crush his skull on the first couple of hits, so Hiroshi knew that this was gonna be a long, drawn out beating. 

That didn't mean that it wasn't gonna hurt like hell.

He didn't even try to fight back, though, even when it felt like his nose burst as blood flooded his vision. 

He simply thought back on his life. 

He remembered how he met his wife, beautiful, lovely, kind Asami, on a movie set for some stupid movie Hiroshi never bothered to remember. The only thing that he got out of it that was worthwhile was meeting such an amazing woman. He had never believed that love at first sight was real until then.

It wasn't until barely a hour ago that he realized he was never good enough for her as he wrapped his hands around her slender neck, choking her as he apologized, tears streaming down his face as she died by his hand.

He remembered how he felt once he got the news that he was going to be a father, almost dropping his phone in shock before giving a small yell in joy, nearly crying, ignoring the stares of the people around him. Damn it, he was going to be a father, and he was going to be happy about it.

He just didn't realize how time consuming it was going to be until Shuichi was a toddler, and he was forced to give his son to Minoru. Deep down, though, he knew he was being selfish, after all, what kind of father chooses their acting career over their son??

He deserved this punishment, and he knew it, so he doesn't fight back.

Eventually, Hiroshi passes out, yet he doesn't feel the punch that cracks his skull, or the ones after that.

In the end, Shuichi's hands are a broken mess of bones and blood, his father laying dead at his feet, yet he was smiling through the pain. 

He had finally killed all ties he had to his pathetic self, and now, he could continue his killing games without a guilty conscience.

He turns back towards the Monokuma plush on the throne, waving as he yells at the bear, getting blood onto his face as it falls off his hand. "Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you all for watching! See you next week with all new contestants, and an all new killing game!"

With that, the camera in the bear's head switches off, the final thing everyone sees on their televisions before they turn off with it being the Ultimate Despair grinning from ear to ear.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow this was a lot harder than I thought it would be, I'm honestly surprised at how long it took for me to write this. But hey, it's here, and it's Done. I hope you all enjoyed this, and have a nice morning/afternoon/evening.


End file.
